Another Mission
by GS
Summary: Wufei contemplates postmission about another pilot. Then, Duo finds the difficulties of helping that are often overlooked. Free to any interperetation.
1. Wufei

Another Mission  
  
GS: Interpret this however you want.   
  
  
Another mission, another safe house. It amazing me sometimes, how those doctor pull house from no where. How many people just leave a fully furnished house laying around? I think there are some more skeletons in the closet for those doctors. Professional safe house makers. Professional hit man is more like it.   
  
I sighed and thumped my tiny bag on one of the beds. Nataku was stashed a few miles off and I had walked all the way here in the rain and mud after completing a week long surveillance mission. I dropped on the bed face first and winced. The bed was as hard as a rock. I painfully pulled myself up to a sitting position and pulled off my boots. Mud had seeped through and I stripped off the slimy socks underneath. My feet were still caked. I repeated the process with the other foot then moved to my jacket. It was soaked through so my shirt was also. It was covered in mud too from where I had slipped. I took off the shirt and moved on to my pants. The bullet wound made itself know as I eased the pants down my legs.  
  
Now all I was left with was a pair of boxers covering in mud too. You'd think that with the high technology we'd be able to get our hands on some waterproof clothes huh? Not likely. I was thankful no one was here as I hobbled off to the small bathroom. I flicked on the lights, not caring what the neighbours thought of my having a shower at 3 am. The shower was too small to have a bath. I turned on the water and let it start to run to get the hot water flowing. I stuck my leg under the tap and hissed as the pain sliced through my body's numbing fatigue.   
  
It was bad, the bullet was still in my leg and it was infected. I swore, suddenly not happy about being alone. I stood back up and hobbled to the bed again. There was a mud imprint from where I had flopped down. The blood resumed to flow and dropped leaving a morbid trail to the bed. I sat on a clean part and opened my little bag. At least it was waterproof. I fished out the first aid kit. I pulled out the tweezers. I wondered briefly if they were sterilised but realised it wouldn't do much good now.  
  
I reached into the gaping hole in my calf and fished around. I felt the bullet deep in my leg but pain was stabbing though my body, right to my brain. I felt very fuzzy as the pain started to fade. Shit. Shock and I was blacking out.   
  
I remember blacking out but when I woke up I saw a pair of colbat eyes pulling back my eyelids. I swatted and tried to punch the person but my limbs were moving in slow motion. A strong grip reached out and held my arms until they relaxed them placed them back on the bed.  
  
"Maxwell," I croaked out and winced at how dry and raspy my voice sounded. "What-"  
  
He placed a hand on my lips, silencing me. "You didn't report in. I was sent to see what was wrong. It's a good thing I did."  
  
He glanced down to my leg and I followed his gaze. It was now fully bandaged. It was morning, I saw the artificial colony sunlight peeking through the window shades. I nodded and he held up a glass of water sitting on the nightstand.  
  
"You haven't eaten anything in four days," he said as he helped me sit up more. He held the glass to my lips and let me take little sips. "I just made something light."  
  
He reached for the cooling bowl of oatmeal beside the glass. He glared and tried to hold the spoon myself but my hand shook so bad I dropped it. He gave me a knowing look and offered a spoonful of the watery food.  
  
"And here comes the Gundam, flying into the hanger."  
  
"Shut up Maxwell," I growled but opened my mouth submissively. The food burned going down. I choked a little and Duo eased back. He waited until I had the food in my system before spooning another piece of food. I looked at it suspiciously now.  
  
"Now comes the choo-choo into the tunnel-"  
  
"Shut up Maxwell."  
  
"If you are going to act childish so am I," he glared at me and held the spoon up again. "Open your goddamned mouth or I will call Sally to come and force feed you."  
  
I shuddered and gingerly opened my mouth. I was more careful when swallowing. I managed to down half the bowl before I just couldn't eat anymore. Duo took it away and placed a wet cloth on my forehead. I flinched at the cold invading my hot skin.  
  
"Calm down 'fei." Duo chided. "You wound got infected and you've been running a fever for the last few days. It's finally starting to break."  
  
I relaxed slightly. I felt very tired. I looked up at Duo hovering above me as he tucked the comforter up to my chin. His face phased out of focus for a minute. "Thanks," I whispered so quietly, even I almost didn't hear it. My eyes closed. When I opened them next it was Quatre who greeted me. Duo was called on another mission 


	2. Duo

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GS: I have to admit, this story turned out way better then I planned. Because I had two people (Silent Shinigami and baby pen) request a sequel, here's Duo's POV. I guess it can be a little humorous, depends on how you take it! Read on my little future reviewers!

****

Duo

I opened the door slowly and looked around. The house was dark. Tiptoeing inside I remembered to do up the locks on the door. I frowned. Usually, those guys that freed up safe houses for us, locked them. They wouldn't want to have to empty a house twice right? Then again maybe Fei was here and just forgot. But when did the prefect Fei-Chang ever forget something?

I looked around the dimmed house and frowned. What the hell was G thinking, sending me to check up on Fei? He probably wasn't even back yet. He was probably stuck in traffic and I was called away from my nice comfy bed on the other side of the colony to check up on an empty house. Just great. I turned to leave while cursing those damned doctors under my breath when I heard something. 

The water was running. I paused and listened. Was it Fei or did someone actually sneak in if the guys didn't lock the door? I didn't want to hurt some poor homeless guy but this was our property and we needed it. Oh really, don't think of me as a jerk but come on! After fighting as hard as we do, don't you think we deserve a nice bed and a hot meal? That's what I thought.

I rested my hand on my gun, my trigger finger twitching as I silently walked up the stairs. There were muddy tracks on the stairs. Someone was definitely here. As I got closer to the one room hallway upstairs I faintly heard the shower running. Damn, I was going to walk in on someone naked. Well, maybe it wasn't all that bad. It depending on of they were cute or not…

I opened the door with one finger, my gun in front of me, cocked and ready to fire. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darker interior of the room. There was a person on the bed, my nose wrinkled at a foul smell. I pushed the door opened wider and carefully crept over to the person on the bed. They were so filthy I had a hard time distinguishing them from the mud covered sheets they were lying on. Cautiously I pushed the crusty hair back from their face. There was no mistaking those elegant eyes.

"Fei," I groaned softly. "What did you do now?"

The mud was parcaily dry, he must have been here a while. The shower was still running. I hurried over and shut it off quickly. The water was icy cold. I grumbled. How long had he been here? There was a trail of mud leading too and from the door. I examined it more closely. There were rust covered puddles along side the mud. I shuddered and thought about just how long Fei had been here alone.

I flicked on the lights in the room and, on an afterthought, clicked my gun back on safety and put it away. I went over to the bed where Wufei was grumbling and closing his eyes tighter against the light. I gingerly touched his shoulder to see if he would wake up. He slept on. I sighed in relief and started to run my hands over his arms. Get your mind out of the gutter hentai! I was looking for where the blood was coming from, duh! Damn, not everything I do with Fei is sexual. Well…

Fortunately he was already stripped to his boxers so I didn't have to disturb him too much. I ran my hand down a leg and suddenly it came away sticky and soaked. Gotcha. I gently moved him so I could have more access to his injury. He whimpered as I poked it to see how bad it was. 

I let out a soft whistle of admiration for the pilot. The bullet was still wedged in there. He had obviously blacked out when he tried to fix it himself, there tweezers were nearby. I shrugged and picked them up myself. I wondered for a moment whether or not I should sterilise them then realised there was already an infection in the wound, what difference would it make? As quickly as I could, I stabbed them in and fished around for the bullet. Wufei's eyes flickered open for a brief moment as he gave a pained yelp before blacking out again. I gripped the ball of lead and firmly pulled it out. That released a flow of blood right into my face.

Grimacing in disgust and cursing, I grabbed a wad of gauze from the open first aid kit near by and quickly pressed it on his leg. I hurriedly wiped the blood from my eyes with an elbow and concentrated on stopping the bleeding. Wufei started to thrash slightly in pain. I frowned, I knew exactly what this felt like, not a month ago Trowa had done the same thing to me. Damn, I had hated him.

After a few minutes I lifted the dressing slightly. When no blood escaped from the edges, I lifted the rest off. It was an ugly thing. Most of the mud was washed off but under the gritty skin was the begins of a large purple bruise. The skin around the damage was yellow with pus. I winced when I realised I would be the one to clear that up. There was no reason to bandage the cut without cleaning it and there was no hot water. 

I shrugged, what was another hour or too? Hey, before you get on my case about being heartless, just remember how helpless I am? What do you want me to do? Kiss it all better? Perhaps go next door and politely ask the neighbours for a delightful bucket of hot water? Oh wait, I'm sort of covered in freaking **blood**! I wanted that hot water as much as Fei did but I couldn't do a damn thing about it.

I awkwardly wrestled the blanket out of the first aid kit and draped it with one hand over Wufei. He was going in shock. And if you couldn't tell, I did pay attention in my med class. 

I don't know how long I sat there, covering Fei's leg with a fresh compress to make sure it didn't bleed again. The blood dried and caked my bangs to my forehead. Attractive I'm sure. The worse part was that it was on my lips too. I made the mistake of licking them. Damn, not that I'm worried about Fei not being clean or something, but the taste of blood made me want to vomit. I watched his face mostly. Come on, what else was I to do?

His hair was loose surprisingly. I had never seen it like that. His face was barely recognisable with the swamp slime covering it but I knew Fei's face well enough. His nose was scrunched up in distaste. Hn, I guess he didn't like my doctoring methods. Now, as I was saying, he was lying in a huge, drying pool of muddy water but there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't want to move him until I could or knew I would bandage his leg.

I guess I watched him for an hour before I realised just how pale his skin was getting under that mud. Shit. I decided I had to take a chance and stood up, my cramped legs protesting. I hurried to the bathroom and sighed in relief as I felt the warm water wash over my hand. I quickly scrubbed my hands and face clean before plugging the tub and turning the cold water on slightly. I left to my mud-covered friend.

"Ok Fei," I carefully pried him from the bed. Damn he was light. "Time for a bath!"

I sure as hell hoped he wouldn't wake up as I pulled off his last piece of clothing. He would kill me. I carried him to the bathroom, making sure no to slip, and placed him gently in the warm water that was filling the tub. Damn, it was tiny. A person couldn't take a comfortable bath in this thing. He shivered as I held an arm behind him to support his back, but he didn't move. Almost immedently, the water turned brown. I sighed and found myself at a loss. I forgot a cloth.

Curing my stupidity, I picked up water and began to pour it over Fei's legs to try and get some of the mud off. Then, just to make my day brighter, his wound started to bleed again. Great, why are the fates against me? This idea just wasn't going to work. I picked him out of the tub and he whimpered in pain. Almost immedently I felt sorry for him. He must have been lying there in pain for hours when I was only a little ways away. Too late now I suppose. Oh shut up you, I'm not a bastard, I swear!

I set Wufei carefully on the floor beside the tub, Before you ask, it did have one of those bath carpets, you know the really plushy ones? So he wasn't sitting naked on a cold tiled floor. I emptied out the water, as it was quite disgusting by now.. I managed to grab a cloth from the other side of the toilet and still held Wufei up by reaching with my toe. I looked utterly ridiculous and nearly broke my neck, but hey, Fei didn't fall over. I pressed the cloth to his leg and cursed as it was soaked through instantly. I just couldn't win. I took a deep breath. First thing was first. I had to get it so Fei could sit up on his own. It would make my life a hell of a lot easier.

I turned off the water with one hand and grabbed a towel Wufei had left nearby on his first adventure that had left the house without hot water. I quickly made a mismatched bandage on his leg

There was only one other available place to put an injured person besides the bed, now covered in mud and grime and other substances, and that was the couch down stairs. I did not want to go all the way down with a naked Wufei in my arms in the dark. So I would have to clear the bed. Fun. I placed Wufei on a clean blanket I found in the cupboard outside the bathroom. I wrapped him in it the best I could and left him lying on the floor. The bed was easy enough to change but I didn't relish in cleaning the mud out of the sheets later. Once the bed was made clean again I realised yet another flaw in my thoughts. I couldn't put a dirty Wufei on a clean bed. Duh. I smacked myself on my forehead. Before you all ask, I just came from a very stressful mission, thank you very much, and I felt no desire to strain my brain to the limit to give a fellow pilot a bath.

I left Fei on the floor again and got a wet cloth from the bathroom. Ideally, I would have brought a big bowl with me to actually clean him but that would involve going downstairs and I wanted to at least get Fei's leg out of the way before I left him too long. Often times, my sense of twisted logic overweighs idealicticness. (1) Or whatever the word I'm looking for is. I've had a hard day ok?

I seem to be getting off topic. Anyway, I washed the wound with the cloth and got all the junk and stuff out. Then, making sure I had something covering the wound first, (blood squirting in my face is bad but pus is even nastier) I pinched the pus packets. Wufei arched his back and hissed loudly as the skin gave. I caught the infection with the towel. It took a few minutes for it to drain and both Fei and I were in a sweat by the end. He relaxed, gasping back on the blanket, his eyes still tightly closed. I stood and walked to the first aid kit again. There was a needle and thread in there. I hated doing this. 

I opened the package and knelt again at Fei's leg. He was still in an uneasy unconsciousness. If I wasn't so worried about his health, I'd think it was adorable the way he scrunched his nose. Now was no time for cuteness though. 

I swallowed and started to stitch up the wound quickly. Wufei's sleeping face twitched as I finished. I placed a fresh dressing over it and hastily covered it with gauze. Once it was secure I let out the breath I had been holding.

I placed the blanket back over him as he was shivering. Poor baby. I brushed his muddied hair from his eyes as he sneezed. I smiled a little. It was pretty cute. Then I stood and ran back downstairs to get a bowl, a few towels, cloths and some dish soap. Before you ask, it was gentle on skin. I raced back up the stairs taking them two at a time. Dumping my finding on the clean bed, I smiled cheerfully down at the still unconscious Wufei.

"You are more trouble when you're sleeping then awake, Fei," I said as I filled the bowl with warm water from the bathroom. Carefully balancing it, I set it down beside the still trembling Fei. I had to pry his fingers from the blanket so I could reach his face. I dipped the cloth in and began to gently wipe at his face. The water in the bowl was rapidly turning brown as I rinsed off the cloth ever little while.

"So awkward to move, plus the fact you aren't co-operating," I had to growl the last part as I pulled Wufei's arm from his chest. He tried to curl back up but I held it away from him. He whimpered. My gaze softened as I began to wash it. "Oh well, I guess you aren't too bad." 

It was near an hour later when I finally deemed him clean enough for the bed. It wasn't perfect but there were some areas I knew Wufei would hate me for cleaning. I fished a clean pair of my boxers from my duffel bag downstairs. I had to stop myself from blushing as I dressed him. In one easy sweep he was on the clean bed and I finally relaxed. The room was still a mess, but there was time for that later.

"You owe me one Fei," I grumbled and settled down on the bed beside him. I let him snuggle with the comforter as I kicked my boots onto the floor. He curled towards me, his weight off his leg fortunately. He didn't come too close but his head was pillowed between my body and the mattress. I grinned slightly, put my hand on the blanket covering his back and closed my eyes. Time for a nap I suppose, or at least until I was called on another mission.

(1)_ If I get tired, all my speech training leaves me and I resort to making up words._


End file.
